


A Certain Kind of Gravitational Pull

by bluefeudallord



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gay Introspection, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 06:11:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8275606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluefeudallord/pseuds/bluefeudallord
Summary: This had been a horrible idea. 
It had been a horrible idea and Kuroko was receiving his comeuppance for trying to scare his friends. Momoi had been punished with drills at six in the morning and here he was: sandwiched between Kagami and Aomine on his poor bed which really wasn’t big enough for three of them, struggling to figure out where to put his hands.





	

Maji Burger, for all its greasy, streamlined efficiency has really started to become a second home to Kuroko. Well, at least this specific Maji Burger, situated surreptitiously at, what Kuroko believes to be, if only spiritually and not literally, the exact midway point between Seirin High, his house, and his favorite street ball courts. He’s not nearly so devoted as Kagami, who had been downright depressed for the week last spring than the fast food joint had been closed due to repairs for a small grease fire, but he’s definitely fond (and lately he’s found he’s all but sworn a loyalty to their vanilla shakes—not even other Maji Burgers manage to get it quite right). Kuroko doesn’t consider himself the type to get misty eyed over a burger joint, but he can’t help but muse on it as he sits in his favorite booth- against a window, but out of the direct sun, and _not_ directly under the icy blast of the air conditioning. This establishment, with it’s fake brick walls and high windows and uniform plastic trays had seen a lot in the past two years. It must know the Seirin basketball team inside and out, for all the team discussions and meetings held under its roof.

“Ah, fuck.” Kagami’s distressed voice pulls him from his thoughts, and he looks over to see Kagami attempt to hurriedly walk over with his usual tray of cheeseburgers halfway smushed into his chest.

“Hm?” Kuroko hums as Kagami collapses on to the table, burgers tumbling over the tray and table as much as their oblong shape would allow. “What happened?”

“Idiot ordered so many they couldn’t all fit on the tray.” Aomine scoffs, without any real bite, as he and Momoi appear right after Kagami, each with trays with actually acceptable amounts of food on them.

“He almost lost one.” Momoi chimes in, looking amused.

“Saved them, though.” Kagami justifies himself as he slides into the seat across from him, dragging his collapsed pyramid of burgers with him. Aomine shoves them over too as he sits down next to him and digs his shoulder into Kagami’s when he doesn’t move fast enough. Momoi takes her own, politer seat next to him.

“Oh gross dude, one of them is totally covered in your sweat.” Aomine points out cheekily as he tears the wrapping off his own combo #3 (no tomatoes).

“It’s probably just grease.” Momoi says, rolling her eyes and leaning over to grab the packets of mustard off Aomine’s tray. Kuroko eyes the layer of burgers leaking over from Kagami’s quarter of the table to his dubiously. Momoi’s probably right, but they are all pretty disgusting. They had come straight from a reasonably intense hour of street ball (one-on-one and two-on-two as necessitated). Aomine and Kagami could certainly go longer than that, but the late summer-almost-fall heat had eventually gotten so bad it had even driven _them_ off in favor of lunch somewhere with A/C.

They’re all heat-exhausted enough that neither Kagami nor Momoi complain when Aomine stretches his arms on the table and lays his head against its cool surface, sighing around his own mouthful of food with relief. Kuroko’s eyes wander up the expanse of his arms idly; Aomine’s arms are bare up to the shoulders, save for the strip of black of his tank top, and still covered with a sheen of sweat.

He presses his milkshake against his cheek, still flushed and warm from the heat (definitely the heat) and quietly snags one of Kagami’s cheeseburgers- he’s too busy downing food like a starved man to notice.

For a few moments none of them talk, too absorbed in eating and chugging down drinks in the blissfully cool air, before- surprisingly- Kuroko is the one to break the silence.

“Ah, Momoi, did you ever get around to watching Bloody Hollow 3.” Kuroko asked. Momoi looked up midchew and shook her head.

“No, I didn’t get a chance to. It came out during exams and the day I wanted to go I had to help Dai-chan with a make-up.” She sighed. Aomine made an affronted sound at the other end of the table, mid-sip of cola.

“Oh you too?” Kagami interrupted before he could gripe at Momoi, looking over with a look of genuine sympathy that made Aomine pause. He swiveled to squint at Kagami. They were sort of friends now, _sort of_. At least, Kuroko liked to think so. They’d certainly spent enough time with each other the past year, this summer especially. After all, the Kuroko-Kagami duo was as much a package deal as the Aomine-Momoi one: wherever one went the other was probably close by. Kise and Midorima (and Takao, another two practically glued at the hip, though Kuroko expected for slightly different reasons) would occasionally come over as well. But for the most part, it was the four of them. Especially since Momoi had started up basketball on the Touou girls’ team last year. Even neglecting _that_ , Aomine hounded Kagami for one-on-ones enough that Kuroko was sure he might actually, genuinely like his company. He was glad for it. As much as he loved to play with the both of them, there was something electrifying about just watching. Aomine had always been bright, but he was absolutely radiant—beautiful even—when he played against Kagami. Kagami also burned brighter when he played with Aomine, always going at it so intensely no matter whether the match was official or casual. They got along off the court too—their sniping had turning steadily from actually aggravation to banter and to casual arms slung over relaxed shoulders. 

Still, outward expressions of solidarity like this were definitely rare. 

“What’d you retake.” Aomine eventually asked, in a cautious, suspicious way that reminded Kuroko of the same way his cat approached puddles after it rained.

“Science.” Kagami said with a sour expression. Aomine’s eyebrows shot up and he tapped the table with his palm.

“Damn, me too! I fucking hated the Chemistry portion. I totally bullshitted whatever red-ox reactions are.” 

“ _Anyway_ ,” Momoi said pointedly to Kuroko, as Kagami and Aomine commiserated on the other side of the table (and privately, Kuroko thought their enthusiasm was cute). “I kind of forgot about how I didn’t get to see until now, why do you ask?”

“I was wondering if you might like to watch it with me.” Kuroko admitted. “My father recently purchased the DVD, and I know you talked about wanting to see it.”

“I don’t get why you were so into it, Satsuki, it’s just gonna be 2 hours of cheap jump scares and bad special effects. Third movies always suck anyway.” Aomine scoffed, interrupting his own conversation. Kuroko raised his eyebrows.

“I thought it was quite good, actually. The ending was very eerie. Much better than the second one.” Aomine just scoffed again.

“Isn’t it about ghosts that possess zombies?” He said scathingly. Momoi rolled her eyes.

“Oh don’t mind him, Tetsu. Dai-chan doesn’t get an opinion if he can barely sit through the first 15 minutes, after all.” She said loftily, patting Kuroko’s shoulder with a smile that managed to be both smug and cheery.

Kuroko’s hid a smile behind his hand and Kagami snorted into his nineth burger of the hour while Aomine sputtered.

“Wo-w,” Kagami drawled. “That makes sense, Kuroko said you were afraid of ghosts.”

“I am _not_ scared.” Aomine bit back so fast it must’ve been reflex. A transparent lie. “Are you?!” He accused.

“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Kagami.” Kuroko chipped in sagely, helpful as ever. 

“What? No.” Kagami said just as fast as Aomine. “I’m not—shut up Kuroko—I’m not scared of ghosts, especially not fake ass ones in movies.” He scowled. Kuroko drew his legs up preemptively and narrowly missed a kick to the shin.

Kuroko and Momoi looked at them, and then each other in a brief, barely-there moment of conspiracy, so fast you’d miss it if you weren’t looking.

“You should watch it with us then!” Momoi beamed, the two of them radiating an innocence that Aomine and Kagami didn’t trust for a second. “It would be fun.” Kuroko hummed in agreement, taking a long sip of his milkshake as he stared expectantly at the two across from him. 

“No way.” Aomine and Kagami said, so in unison it seemed to surprise even them, if the irritated glances they exchanged were anything to go by.

Momoi smile dropped into a judgmental quirk of an eyebrow. “So you are scared.”

“Am not!” They chorused again, earning each other another scowl. Aomine elbowed Kagami in the ribs with a “stop copying me” hissed under his breath in the same moment a smirk flashed over Momoi’s face. “Then it’s settled! Horror movie night next weekend!”

“Well—it—it can’t be at my place.” Kagami said quickly. Momoi squinted at him and was about to grill him for why when Kuroko interjected instead.

“Actually, we could do it at my house.” Kuroko said mildly, raising his hand just as politely. “My parents are out for the weekend, and well,” He paused. “Theres my grandmother, but she retires early and sleeps heavily. If you wouldn’t mind meeting her.”

“Oh, Tetsu’s grandmother is cool.” Aomine said with a grin. They all looked at him and the grin slipped off his face when he realized he was just digging himself deeper.

“Well!” Momoi said, claping her hands together. Kuroko smiled against his palm and Aomine and Kagami sunk lower in their seats. “That settles it. We’ll meet at Tetsu’s!”

 

* * *

 

Sometimes Kagami wasn’t sure why he was friends with Kuroko and this, this was one of those days. He _hated_ ghost stories, and he hated horror movies. Himuro of course, had loved them, and had insisted on showing Kagami all the “classics” back in middle school. Which he had taken in stride at the time, because he had still been under the impression that Himuro was cool (okay, he still thought Tatsuya was pretty cool—because he was!). He could do the cheesy 80’s ones, but Paranormal Activity (Himuro had insisted they watch it in the dark, alone, when no one else had been in his house) had given him nightmares for a _week_. His dad had tended to work late in those days too, so he wouldn’t be back till late at night to early morning. Sleeping alone in the dark knowing that shit could pull you from under the sheets and murder you was the least fun thing Kagami could think of.

Still, it wasn’t like he was going to lose out to Aomine Daiki of all people. Maybe, at the very least, seeing _him_ screaming might take off the edge off this whole shitshow. Aomine tended to be distracting anyway. Kuroko had once told him, in a quiet moment of confidence, how he had always thought Aomine had a special gravitational pull. People came to him and orbited around him like planets do the sun: all at different lengths and at different paces but definitively around the same central point. He hadn’t been convinced at the time. Another convoluted metaphor to go over his head (the shadow and light thing had only just started to stop seeming cheesy as hell). If anything, it seemed like Aomine was better at driving people away. But Kuroko had been so wistful that he’d kept his mouth shut at the time. Now, Kagami had to admit he could see where he was coming from. Aomine did have a way of sweeping you into his pace: dragging Kagami off to courts and stores and dives with only Kuroko or Momoi to subtly curb and shape his flow.

But.

That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

Trudging along Kuroko’s street made Kagami realize this was the first time he had been to Kuroko’s house at all. Kagami’s apartment was usually the preferred meeting spot, since it was big and he lived alone and his friends seemed to think he deserved to pay them dues for living there in the first place. He had never questioned it before now, never wondered where Kuroko disappeared off to after practice or what his family might be like.

Huh.

He finally got to Kuroko’s door, and thank god the house wasn’t as hard to find as he was. Aomine showed up at the same time he did by some twist of fate, approaching it from the opposite direction.

“Hey,” The other drawled as he approached, noticeably alone.

“Hi, uh, where’s Momoi. She coming later?”

“Nah, she had to cancel. Her team scheduled some random practice for early tomorrow morning.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The girls’ captain drives Satsuki up a wall with this shit but, as long as she can make up for it on the court.” Aomine shrugged, then gave Kagami a once over. “You look—“ He paused, making a funny face as his mouth caught on a word before changing his mind. “Fancy. You don’t have to dress up. It’s just Tetsu.”

Was he? Kagami looked down at himself. He was just wearing a t-shirt with a red flannel thrown over it, rolled up to the elbows, and his nicer pair of jeans. The heat of the day was gradually giving way to cooler and cooler nights, so he had opted for something a little cozier. He didn’t think it was that impressive but he guessed it was leagues above the sweaty tanks and tees Aomine usually saw him in. “I guess.” He said relunctantly. Aomine was dressed better than he’d ever seen him before too, in a hooded blue jacket with faux leather accents . Kagami didn’t really care about clothes that much, he knew what looked good enough on him and that was it, but the color definitely suited him—much better than the black or grey he usually saw him in. Brought out his eyes. There was an awkward silence of them just, looking at each other before Aomine turned on his heel to knock on the door. 

To Kagami’s surprise, it was not Kuroko who answered the door, but a small, white haired old woman. Realization dawned a second later than it should’ve—this must be Kuroko’s grandmother. She didn’t really look like him as far as he could tell, maybe her hair had been blue before it had turned grey, but her eyes were dark and her face was pointed instead of round. Aomine, completely unfazed, smiled in a way that could only be described as _charming,_ greeting her like it was the most casual thing in the world. Kagami stared at him.

“Daiki,” She said, with a small smile that none the less crinkled at her eyes—okay, now Kagami could see the family resemblance—as she let them in. “It’s nice to see you again. You’ve gotten so tall.”

Aomine actually leaned down to take off his shoes, putting them on the floor neatly side by side as he made some light conversation. Kagami glanced at him reproachfully out of the corner of his eye—he usually kicked them off when he came over to his apartment. Way to kiss up to the old lady.

“And you must be Kagami. I’ve heard a lot about you from Tetsuya.” Kuroko’s grandmother said, now to him. He snapped his attention back to her, feeling his face get hot. The way she had trailed off was also so familiarly Kuroko he might think she was teasing him if he didn’t know any better.

Well, at least, he hoped Kuroko hadn’t told her anything embarrassing.

“Ah yes, um, nice to meet you.” He muttered, bowing stiffly. Aomine smirked at him over her shoulder. Douchebag. He’d made sure to shove him once Kuroko’s grandmother’s back was turned.

“Hello.” Came Kuroko’s voice, suddenly appearing at his grandmother’s side, arms full of a rather small Siamese cat with chocolate points. Kagami didn’t flinch outwardly, but he felt himself start. Kuroko’s grandmother on the other hand, didn’t seem perturbed at all. “Sorry, Kirumi knocked over her food dish and I had to clean it up.” He said, nodding to feline as it meowed (if you could call that a meow) balefully. “Thank you for answering the door.”

“Hey Kiru,” Aomine grinned at the cat, extending a hand before her muzzle. The cat perked up immediately, twisting in Kuroko’s hold and bracing her front paws against his arms to lean forward to inspect it. She nosed at his knuckles delicately before butting her head against them with a rumbling purr. Aomine’s grin brightened and he happily took her from Kuroko’s arms as Kuroko and his grandmother headed towards the kitchen to make tea.

“Someone remembers me.” He murmured to the cat playfully as she bumped her nose to his chin. He was wearing the same thin eyed, satisfied expression as the cat as he hooked her into his elbow and scratched underneath her chin.  Kagami couldn’t help but smile a little bit, leaning a little closer to the two of them and raising his own hand to try his luck.

He _had_ always been a cat person.

Aomine noticed him hovering and with a just a little bit of a smirk, turned to bring Kirumi closer to Kagami’s timid hand. Kagami ignored him and let the cat sniff his hand before soothing it over the top of her soft head and ears. She let it happen, closing her eyes as he scratched behind her ear. That was a win as far as Kagami was concerned: he wasn’t usually good with animals of any kind. She nudged into his hand a little more and he looked up at Aomine, eyes wide and with a grin on his lips. Aomine matched his smile with a toothy one of his own, arching his eyebrows quickly in encouragement. He took one of her paws, small and dark in his large hands and she let him extend it so it tapped Kagami’s bicep . They giggled conspiratorially. They didn’t even notice when Kuroko showed back up.

“My grandmother wants to know if Oolong is okay.” Kuroko said mildly from the doorway near them. Kagami and Aomine froze like guilty children. Kuroko’s gaze was blank but it wasn’t like Kagami couldn’t see him struggling to keep down a smile. Aomine twisted back around taking Kirumi with him and stalked off further into the house.

“Oolong’s fine.” He grumbled, embarrassed, before disappearing around a corner. Kuroko and Kagami looked at the space where he once was and then at each other. Kuroko's battle with his smile had taken a turn for a worse, and Kagami could see the whites of his teeth as he chuckled softly behind his hand. Kagami snorted in kind even if he was a little red faced himself.

“I can help bring it in, if you—your grandmother—wants.” Kagami offered. Kuroko smiled.

“If Kagami wouldn’t mind.”

Kagami and Kuroko find Aomine again when they walk into the living room, a tray of tea in Kagami’s arms and a couple bags of snacks in Kuroko’s. He’s lounged on the couch like he owns the place—a familiar sight, which should be more concerning to Kagami then it is—letting Kirumi play-attack his hand. He looks up when they come, and greets them.

“Hey.”

“Not gonna tear Kuroko’s place apart for his porn?” Kagami says accusingly as he sets down the tea. For once he doesn’t have to knock Aomine’s feet off the coffee table like at his place.

Aomine gives him a reproachful look. Kirumi settles herself in his lap. “Dude. Tetsu lives with his parents and grandma. There’s not gonna be any.”

Kuroko takes his tea and sits down next to Aomine, one leg folded up on the seat in a casual manner. “I certainly wouldn’t leave it in the living room.” He says before taking a sip. Aomine’s head snaps to him, his eyebrows jumping towards his hairline.

“ _Tetsu_.” Kuroko just raises his eyebrows right back. Aomine has that weird constipated look on his face for the second time in the past 15 minutes. Kagami looks at him out of the corner of his eye suspiciously as he sits down. Aomine internally struggles for a second before abandoning the thought completely. “Oh wait, by the way, before I forget.” He says instead. “Satsuki says sorry she can’t make it Tetsu. Her captain sprung surprise summer practice on her.”

Kuroko nodded. “Yes, she texted me as much.”

Kagami straightened up, seeing his chance. “Well, you know, Momoi’s the whole reason we even planned this to begin with. It’d be unfair to watch it without her.” He said, with all the air of a diplomat. Aomine nodded, pointing at him, concern spontaneously plastering its way over his face.

“Ya know, Kagami’s right for once, Tetsu. It’d be rude. Can’t do this without Satsuki.” 

Kuroko blinked slowly at the two of them, face frustratingly neutral. “Hm? Well,” He looked down at his phone. “I was concerned about that too, but when I asked Momoi about it, she said we should just go ahead.” He explained calmly. “Besides, I’m not opposed to rewatching it later. And who knows,” He tilted his head, and with a deliberate innocence that made Kagami want to punch him. “You might even enjoy it.”

 

* * *

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh FUCK.”

In Kuroko’s honest, unbiased opinion, this had been a fantastic idea.

“Tets-TETSUTETSU. FUCK. SHIT.”

An inventory of the current situation: one (1) Kuroko Tetsuya, one three (3) person couch, sixty five minutes of vengeful ghosts (with about fifty five minutes to go), and two (2) 6ft plus 17 year olds trying to curl up as small and away from the TV screen as they possibly could.

Kagami had graduated from subconsciously grabbing his hand to Kuroko’s entire arm at some point: one hand clutching at his shirt sleeve and the other curled around his lower arm. To his credit, Kagami hadn’t looked away once from the movie, staring at it with a transfixed horror that steadily increased in intensity as it had gone on. Aomine, to his right, was a different story. He had curled up almost completely, his knees practically in Kurokos lap, spending his time alternating between pressing his face into Kuroko's shoulder and tossing fleeting glances at the screen when he thought it was safe. His hair was close enough and just long enough that it brushed against Kuroko’s cheek. He smelled nice. Kuroko wondered if he might be wearing cologne (his heart fluttered at the fleeting possibility that he might’ve done so specifically for him).

“Oh, I think it’s over for now.” Kuroko whispered, lips brushing against the blue wefts of his hair. Aomine cautiously lifted his head just as a close up of a gruesome, bloody face flashed across the screen.

“Sorry, I guess not.” He said breezily over the sound of Aomine shrieking and cursing him against his shoulder.

“Fuck you, Tetsu. Fuck you.” He hissed, all venom completely muffled against the fabric of Kuroko’s shirt. Kagami whimpered to his left. Kirumi had abandoned them all a while ago, scared off by his companion’s sudden movements and strange sounds. Kuroko smiled against Aomine’s hair; the exhale of his quiet chuckles ruffled his hairs slightly.

There was something extremely gratifying about Kagami and Aomine, rowdy and bold and brash and big, clinging to him like this. He had spent most of this time watching their reactions rather than the movie, making careful use of his skills to take a video of their faces during the first couple jump scares—for Momoi of course. Years of training had really paid off after all. It was the perfect crime.

If he was being honest with himself—and Kuroko tried to be—this wasn’t all just for laughs. If he was being honest… he kind of liked the close proximity. They were practically _cuddling_ at this point, what with Kagami and Aomine’s respective limbs tangled in his. It wasn’t cold in his house persay, but he had always had a tendency to run chilly. Kagami and Aomine always seemed to have the opposite problem, and their skin was warm against his.

It was nice.

This sort of thing still made Kuroko feel a bit guilty, like it had every time Ogiwara had dragged him along by the hand to play HORSE in the park in grade school, and like it had every time Aomine had dozed off on his shoulder on the bus rides back from away games during Teiko. He tended to shy away from physical contact, not out of coldness or stoicism, but because if it wasn’t certain people it felt _wrong_. Aomine had always been an exception, and Kagami had worked his way into becoming one too. Kuroko found himself not merely tolerating the hair ruffles and one armed hugs and knees bumping under tables and fist bumps and arms slung over shoulders, but soaking them in.

Kuroko also found himself wanting to touch them more too. It didn’t help that in the summer Kagami had a tendancy to shed his shirt in the heat. And Aomine had a tendancy to take this as a challenge. Kagami had been filling out even more thanks to the last few dredges of puberty and specialized muscle training, while Aomine was steadily transforming from lanky to lithe.

Suffice to say, it had been a rough summer for Kuroko.

Kagami jerks against his arm and after some deliberation Kuroko gently puts a placating hand over his. He can feel Kagami’s shoulders tense more before relaxing.

They’re hard anxieties to shake off, but in retrospect they’re kind of ridiculous. Kagami’s too dense to know _everything_ but he knows Kuroko likes men (he knows about the whole Aomine situation too, which is more nerve-wracking). He’d shown Kuroko a picture of when Alex had taken him and Himuro to a pride event in Los Angeles too, when they were kids. Kagami had been fresh into an unexpected growth spur: taller than Himuro but not Alex. Himuro’s grin bared purple braces and they’d had a sparkly green boa wrapped around both their shoulders, rainbow stickers on their cheeks. Then, you know, Kagami had stiffly informed Kuroko that he was probably gay too. (Kuroko wondered if there was a way to come out that wasn’t horribly awkward on everyone’s parts).

Aomine had never said anything so explicit—but Kuroko trusted him. He doesn’t know much he _knows_ , but Momoi’s jubilous affections had shifted from him to Riko, and Aomine had hardly batted an eye. Kuroko also got the gut feeling that he might not be straight, between the way he stared at Kagami and the way he would look away from Kuroko suddenly, as if caught looking. (Though, to be fair, that could just be the last dredges of his desperate middle school pining talking).

Kuroko lets himself lean his head back against Aomine’s regardless, cheek pressed against his forehead. If he looks down he can see the curve of his eyelashes, highlighted by the blue TV screen. Kagami now has his right arm _and_ his left hand in his clutches, but he doesn’t mind too much.

Yeah, all in all this had been a pretty good idea.

 

* * *

 

This had been a horrible idea.

It had been a horrible idea and Kuroko was receiving his comeuppance for trying to scare his friends. Momoi had been punished with drills at six in the morning and here _he_ was: sandwiched between Kagami and Aomine on his poor bed which really wasn’t big enough for three of them, struggling to figure out where to put his hands.

Kuroko could remember the events that had preceded this one, but he still couldn’t comprehend how they had gotten from point A to point B.

When the movie had finished, the sky outside that they could see from the windows had gone from the periwinkle of twilight to the definitive dark blue of night. Aomine and Kagami were still clutching at Kuroko, as if not trusting that the movie credits wouldn’t segway into one last sudden horrifying zombie lunging at them.

“Did you like it?” Kuroko asked, not even trying to mask his mirth. Aomine lifted his head and scowled at him.

“You are the biggest bastard of us all, Tetsu. And it’s bullshit. Because no one ever suspects you of anything.” He accused as he slid his legs off his lap and released Kuroko’s shirt. Kagami grumbled something indistinct and stiffly pried his hands off of Kuroko, shuffling to put a little more space between them. Kuroko just smiled a smug little smile.

He had managed to corral them to the door after that: it was late and they should be getting home. That’s where it all turned south. Kuroko had _just_ bid them goodnight and was walking back up the stairs that led to his room when he was stopped by knocking. Confused, he went back down. No sooner had he opened the door than Aomine and Kagami had barreled back into his home, both pale and sweating and clearly shaken. Kuroko stared at them for a second, confused, before realization dawned on him, the concern dropping into something severely unimpressed.

“You’re too scared to walk home alone now that it’s dark. aren't you.”

“Tetsu all the streetlight started to _flicker_ —all of them, at the same time!” “Something was fucking following me Kuroko I swear to god.”

Kuroko sighed. They were already in the entry way, and there was no way Kuroko would be able to shove them out on to the street like this (they were way too heavy for one thing)

“Well… I guess you can stay here.”

He had ushered them up to his room while he went to go look for a futon. The thing was, the Kuroko household didn’t own an extra futon anymore. There had been a pipe leak into the storage closet where their old one had been kept, and it had gotten so moldy they had had to throw it out. His parents had never bought a new one because Kuroko had been trudging through the last year of middle school when it had happened, depressed and petulantly sure he would never ever get close to anyone _ever_ again, and had told them not to.

By the time he remembered this and went upstairs to tell his guests as much, Aomine had already made a home on his bed.

“Hey Tetsu do you have any extra pajamas?” He asked, surprisingly casual for someone who had been shaking in his boots not ten minutes ago at the idea of walking in the dark.

Kuroko stared at him. “Nothing that would fit you, probably.” Aomine shrugged and just slipped off his shirt like it was nothing, lying back on the bed with his chest bare. Kagami, standing near him leaned over to smack him over the head, scowling. Kuroko tried very hard not to look at his abs.

“So uh, are we sleeping here?” Aomine asked, rubbing his head. Kuroko pursed his lips, surveying his options. He would send them down to sleep on the couch, but his parents were supposed to come back by the morning. They wouldn’t be mad at him having unexpected guests, but he’d still rather not subject them to half-naked teenage boys lounging around in their living room. He sighed in defeat for the second time that night.

“Yes. You’ll be sleeping here.”

And then somewhere along the way, even though Kuroko told them to sleep on the floor like civilized guests, Aomine had whined his way up into staying in his bed and Kagami had, in an attempt to wrestle him back down, just stayed up there too.

So here they were—three peas in a very tight pod. Kuroko’s bed might be a full but it still wasn’t fit to accommodate three people, let alone two 6 foot men with broad shoulders and long limbs. Kagami couldn’t lay down properly at all, thanks to the breadth of his shoulders, and had curled up against the wall.  Kuroko had managed to find something for Aomine to wear: a shirt two sizes too big that still rode up on Aomine’s stomach and some basketball shorts, and Kagami had kept on his undershirt, so at the very least they weren’t half naked. It was a small blessing.

Kuroko had somehow—perhaps Aquarius was in last place today—gotten situated in the middle, left to stare fixedly at Kagami's exposed clavicle with his hands curled centimeters away from the rise and fall of Kagami’s chest. Aomine was against his back, not touching but close enough that it was somehow worse. Their legs were all tangled together out of necessity, since Kagami and Aomine simply did not fit. Everytime either of them exhaled Kuroko could feel it in his hair or on the nape of his neck, raising goosebumps on his skin. It was all too close and temptingly not close enough at once.

It was also insufferably hot between the two of them. The warmth of their skin had been comforting in the living room, but now with both of them radiating like furnaces on either side of him, it was stifling. Kagami and Aomine were idiots who couldn’t read the atmosphere or understand basic human decency apparently (he had always known this, shame on him), and Kuroko was no better for letting them get away with it. He was wondering if he should say something when Aomine _shifted_ , pressing the full length of himself up against his back. There was no space now, especially as Aomine leaned up and over him to gripe at Kagami to move over, blocking him in completely to the warmth of his skin and the deep vibrations of his voice as they resonated in his chest.

Kuroko wished for death. 

“No.” Kuroko said, overwhelmed . He sat straight up, shoving Aomine aside. “No. This isn’t working. We can’t sleep like this.” At the very least _he_ couldn’t. Kagami and Aomine blinked at him.  “The bed is too small. You two are too pointlessly big.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda falling off the bed here.” Aomine said pointedly.

“At least you have enough space to lie down at all, my arm’s falling asleep.” Kagami muttered back.

“Ok like, _barely.”_

“You two can still sleep on the floor.” Kuroko said plainly, sitting back on his calves. Aomine frowned.

“Hell no Tetsu, you should sleep on the floor since we’re guests.” He said petulantly, hugging one of Kuroko’s pillows to himself. Kuroko narrowed his eyes back at him warningly.

“Aomine-kun should remember that it is my bed, and that it’s rude to impose on your friends.” Aomine arched his eyebrows, unimpressed.

“Yeah, whatever Tetsu,” He said, settling himself more comfortably in the bed.

“Move.”

“ _Make me_.”

“Look, why don’t we all sleep on the floor.” Kagami interjected, sitting up and grabbing Kuroko’s shoulder before things escalated. “We can make a fort or something.”

Kuroko resisted the urge to punch Aomine in the gut and redirected his glare to Kagami. “I told you earlier, we can’t make a mess of the living room. My parents wouldn’t appreciate it.”

“No, no, I got that, I’m saying why don’t we make one in your room, with the mattress and extra pillows.” Kagami explained, sounding oddly reasonable. Kuroko and Aomine stared at him. “That way we can lay across it horizontally and not bunched up like this.”

“That’s, actually not a bad idea.” Kuroko admitted, turning the idea over in his mind. Aomine just sighed.

“Fiiiiine.”

It took Kagami physically dragging him off to get Aomine to actually get off of the bed, since as soon as he had it to himself he’d rolled over and feigned sleep. But after that ordeal, it wasn’t hard to tug the mattress to the floor and set up. Kuroko scrounged up as many extra pillows as he could, and after some deliberation, got Kagami to help him sneak up the couch cushions too. Fifteen minutes later of fluffing and arranging, and they had a decent set up. They laid the mattress long ways so the three of them could fit, and then used the couch cushions to support their legs, others used to support the canopy of Kuroko’s sheets. All the extra pillows that could be found in the Kuroko household had been thrown in as well, creating a haphazard nest. It wasn’t perfect, but it was leagues better than their previous arrangement. Aomine had somehow needled his way into the middle somewhere along the way, but Kuroko wasn’t going to fight him for it—there was only so much his heart could take.

They were still bunched pretty closed together, since there was only so much blanket, but at least Kuroko could breathe now. Like this, it was less _intimate_ and more… nostalgic. It reminded Kuroko of sleepovers with Ogiwara back in elementary school. They’d been few and far between but cherished—the both of them staying up till midnight, going through basketball magazines and giggling breathlessly about their dreams of going into the NBA.

Hm. That reminded Kuroko. Aomine and Kagami were muttering about something to do with if animals have souls or not as Kuroko got up again to dig through his closet. After a minute, he emerged with a small, spherical lamp, and walked over to his outlet to plug it in. It took some careful positioning to nestle it within the fort without knocking something over with the cord, but Kuroko managed.

“Okay, so, maybe rats do, but you cannot honestly tell me that horses are capable of compassio—“ Kagami trailed off as suddenly Kuroko flicked the lights off, and the blanket above them suddenly lit up with small pinpoints of light, stretching over the folds and slopes of the fabric. Kuroko smiled. His old home planaterium light; it still worked. He carefully stepped over Kagami and Aomine and settled himself down on Aomine’s left, wrapping himself in the thinner blanket he had secured for himself.

Kuroko didn’t think it was a very impressive star map by modern means, but Kagami and Aomine went oddly silent, shifting and settling on to their backs to look up at it.

Kuroko smiled into his pillow. “My mom got it for me when I was little. I’m glad it still works.” He explained quietly, rolling on to his back as well to look up at the artificial heavens. “You can buy ones that outline the constellations and move now.”

“Once, in L.A. I went on this school trip.” Kagami said on Aomine’s other side, voice quiet in way Kuroko still wasn’t very well acquainted with yet. “Out into the desert to this desert camp out thing. It was fun, and we got to sleep overnight, and you.” He sighed and Kuroko could hear the grin in his voice. “You could see everything—even the milky way. It was really cool.”

“That sounds nice.” Kuroko said softly. The three of them settled into a comfortable silence, looking at the ceiling with something a little less than wonder.

“You know,” Aomine said, almost thoughtfully. “There’s a planetarium up near where I live. They have shows and shit—I think. It might be okay… to go sometime.” He said, and then, unconvincingly. “Satsuki’s been wanting to go, is all.”

Kuroko turned to look at Aomine, his profile against the bed gently illuminated with the blue-white light of the stars above them. He looked much softer like this, the lines of his face less harsh in the drowsy lowlight. It made affection twist, warm and sugary, in his chest.

“We can all go, us and Momoi-san.” Kuroko murmured, sleep finally catching up to him and making his eyes heavy. “Next meteor shower too, there are nice stargazing spots outside of the city.” Kagami made a sleepy noise of assent, already starting to doze off. Aomine turned his head and flashed Kuroko a small smile, honest in the security in the dimness of the room.

“Yeah, that’d be fun.”

 

* * *

 

 Kuroko wakes up unwillingly, shivering in the morning air. In his sleepy daze there are only two things that matter: that the space to his left is cold and airy and the space to his right is very warm and has about half of his blanket. _Thief._ Kuroko thinks hazily as he curls in against Aomine’s back. He tries to tug the blanket back but doesn’t manage more than a couple inches, weak from sleep. His front is warm and Aomine is solid and his cotton shirt soft against his knuckles, but his back is _so cold_. He must make some kind of displeased noise about it, because suddenly he feels the mattress shift and the blanket gets pulled away from Aomine and draped back over his shoulders. Ah, Kagami-kun. Kuroko opens his eyes a sliver, peeking as Kagami crawls out of the fort and leaves the room, closing the door quietly and courteous behind him—probably going to the bathroom. Kuroko clutches at the edge of the blanket, pulling it to himself.    He thinks about it: Kagami’s gentle hand on his shoulder and the way he had patted Aomine’s hair before leaving, the brightness of Aomine’s smile when he had held Kirumi and the gentler curve of it before they had fallen asleep last night. Thinks about all the times Aomine draped himself over Kagami and all the ways Kagami had come to indulge Aomine’s fickle tastes and moods with. And most of all, he thinks about how it makes him feel: being around them and sharing and laughing and touching.

He turns his head to look at the slope of Aomine’s neck and then looks back up to the sagging makeshift ceiling, still dotted with faint lights because none of them had turned off the stars off last night. He’ll worry about things like decisions and resolve later, when his eyelids aren’t drooping and his mind is clearer.

“ _I should look up if there are any meteor showers this month”._ Kuroko thinks idly, as he nestles his forehead back in-between Aomine’s shoulder blades and closes his eyes.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> And then Kuroko emails Momoi the videos he took and Momoi laughs her head off and shows them to Aomine who gets embarrassed and tries to wrestle her phone out of her hands to delete them and she laughs even harder. 
> 
> Big thanks to my good friend aubree for betaing this fic and being my brainstorming/headcanon partner!! Also to my other friends who supported me even though none of them like knb lol, and to my astrophysics roommate who is probably why I subconsciously put so much astronomy shit in here.


End file.
